


not meant to be malicious but this is the cross we bear

by avosettas



Series: don't forget (i'm with you as it gets dark, darker, yet darker) [2]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Post-Undertale Pacifist Route
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:34:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27275017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avosettas/pseuds/avosettas
Summary: Frisk opens the scrapbook. The first page has two pictures in it, of three people each.One is of Sans, Alphys, and someone else that they don’t know.Sans looks… happy. Happier than he was when they met him Underground, anyway, since he seems pretty happy on the surface. He’s wearing glasses, and a lab coat over his sweatshirt.
Series: don't forget (i'm with you as it gets dark, darker, yet darker) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1980775
Kudos: 11





	not meant to be malicious but this is the cross we bear

**Author's Note:**

> i.... should update HYHaHOYS but ive been 1. working and 2. binging underverse and xtale so. hell yeah. here's this instead. slowly trying to finish my 3+ in progress series.

Frisk stays with Sans and Papyrus a lot, once they’re on the Surface. It’s fun. They’ve never had friends to have sleepovers with before. (And sharing a body with Chara while Underground doesn’t count, even if they’re friends.)

“COULD YOU GRAB SOME MORE OF THIS SAUCE FROM THE BASEMENT, FRISK?” Papyrus asks as they watch him cook dinner one night. He holds up an empty jar in one hand, and Frisk nods, hopping off their chair. 

The stairs to the basement are dark, and the light doesn’t really help. It’s just a bulb at the bottom of the stairs, and it flickers a lot, like it’s about to wink out. Still… 

Maybe there’s another light at the bottom? 

So they brave the stairs. They creak a lot, and they’re kind of uneven, too, but the railing is alright. Frisk makes it to the bottom without incident and flips the switch there, too. 

There are two rows of fluorescent lights on the ceiling, much brighter than the bare bulb, and they aren’t flickering as much. The shelf with the extra food is just across the basement. 

But there are other things, too. 

In the far corner, something tall is covered by a tarp. It looks like it’s still on the dolly that wheeled it in - Frisk can see the wheels peeking out beneath the tarp. It’s big, and bulky, and taller than even Papyrus, or Asgore. 

Beside it is a shelf, simple wood painted white. It seems to have been done in one coat - the grain of the wood still shows through it. On top of it is a scrapbook, and there’s a box on the shelf below that. It’s like a shoebox, but it’s just plain cardboard, with a slot to slide a label in. It’s blank. 

Frisk opens the scrapbook. The first page has two pictures in it, of three people each. 

One is of Sans, Alphys, and someone else that they don’t know. 

Sans looks… happy. Happier than he was when they met him Underground, anyway, since he seems pretty happy on the surface. He’s wearing glasses, and a lab coat over his sweatshirt. 

Alphys looks pretty much the same, but less stressed. The shirt under her lab coat is brighter than what she usually wears these days, and her spines are standing up much straighter. 

The man in the middle is a monster Frisk can’t identify. It hurts their head to look at the picture. 

The second picture is of three people Frisk doesn’t know, and looking at it hurts their head the same way the man from the first did.   
They close the scrapbook again and rub at their eyes with their fist. Then, they look in the shoebox. 

There are bits of porcelain - probably, anyway - taking up most of the space, but beneath that are some odds and ends. Mostly identification cards, maybe four or five of them. Beneath all of that is a small picture, blurred and dark. 

Frisk takes the picture out first. It’s actually a drawing, but they can only tell by looking at it really closely. There are three people in it, but it’s hard to tell who they’re meant to be - harder still, because the picture seems to have been photocopied, and badly.

In the bottom margin, it says “ _don’t forget_ ”. It’s not handwriting they recognize, but they suppose that makes sense, since they don’t recognize any of the people in the picture, either. 

They flip through the IDs next. Four of the pictures on them make their head hurt, and they can’t focus on them, like the photos in the scrapbook - these, they put right back into the box, under the porcelain bits. 

The last has Sans’s photo on it, happier and different. Looking at the big, round glasses he’s wearing makes Frisk giggle a bit. To the right of the photo, it reads _Comic Sans_ in bold letters, and under that, smaller, _experimental physicist_. There’s a spot where he probably should have signed, but it all he did was write his name in lowercase print. 

“FRISK?” Papyrus calls from upstairs. 

“Coming,” Frisk calls, hoping it’s loud enough that Papyrus heard. 

They put the box back, grab the jar of sauce, and bolt back up the stairs. 

(The box isn’t _exactly_ where it was. And it’s owner is pretty careful about nosy people, anyway. 

Frisk is only slightly surprised that the cryptic note they find in their bed at home the next night is written in comic sans: 

**don’t forget, i’m with you in the dark.** )


End file.
